The central focus of this book is the serious study of ornamentation and a more nuanced understanding of the devotional practices of Lord Krishna than is available in current scholarship. In the prologue, Cynthia Packert points out that Krishna’s most familiar aspect, his body and its decoration, is not only a site for religious imagination and adoration, but also for cultural negotiation where multiple discourses about visuality, aesthetics, desire, emotion, history, and so on converge.
In the introduction to the book, Packert outlines significant themes she terms a “bhakti tool kit” related to Krishna worship, which includes a comprehensive overview of Braj, India, where Krishna grew up, sets the scenes of his story, and introduces the devotional practices related to his worship, termed bhakti (loving devotion) and darshan (seeing god). Packert also discusses concepts like shringar (decoration) that highlight the importance of ornamentation in Indian society. She explains that ornamentation is a way to endow one’s gods with qualities and to bring them fully into being. Since Hindu gods are believed to be enthusiastic participants in the affairs of mortals, ornamentation becomes a primary tool for the devotee to show affection by offering god the very best he can afford. It is through material things that the devotee connects with the divine and the divine connects with the devotee. A beautifully ornamented body of god promotes bhav, an emotional state of happiness and enjoyment for both the deity and the devotee. Packert concludes the introduction by questioning the lack of scholarship on these images of Krishna and their contemporary devotional practices. She argues that this lack may be due to the familiar distinction drawn between “high art” and “low art” that places decorative art at the bottom of the hierarchical ladder due to scholars’ discomfort with the emotional responses of viewers and scholars’ suspicions about its materiality. Earlier in the introduction Packert proposes that the introduction may be skimmed by the knowledgeable reader; however, I believe that the introduction is central to the general understanding of the text by all readers. In the introduction, Packert not only explains concepts important to Krishna worship, but also proposes key theoretical arguments that remain central throughout the text.
Packert spends the next three chapters concentrating on three self-manifestations of Krishna—Radharamana and Radhavallabha in Vrindaban, and Govindadeva in Jaipur—and the visual practices associated with their individual temple activities. These form the core of Packert’s comparative examinations of the meaning and significance of the ornamental traditions of each temple. The three self-manifestations of Krishna called svarupas were revealed to three saints, Gopala Bhatta, Hit Harivansha, and Rupa Goswami, respectively, who made temples for their worship. Since svarupas require continual care and ritual attention, a lineage of caretakers called goswamis was appointed. Even today the care and worship of the three Krishna temples is the responsibility of goswamis whose posts are hereditary and governed by traditional practices that date back to these saints who also documented these practices in texts.
The three chapters share many structural similarities. In each chapter, Packert provides a historical background of the temple and its founder as well as a detailed description of the deity’s daily routine and the rigorous nature of his seva (selfless service). Since the deities are believed to be continuously present in the temple, they are fed, bathed, dressed, ornamented, and put to bed each day. Their daily routines are also influenced by calendrical events, festivals, and the movement of stars and planets. In each chapter, Packert pays considerable attention to the way deities are ornamented on these special occasions as well as to their visual displays in handmade, elaborately done-up bangalas, which are pavilions made of fresh materials like flowers, fruit, and vegetables of the season. Her purpose in providing these detailed descriptions is not only to document traditional practices, but also to show how celebration marked by ornamentation provides mediums through which each temple attempts to proclaim its own sense of individuality as well as to showcase, in the case of the Govindadeva temple, a shift in historical patronage.
In the fourth chapter, Packert considers how Krishna is worshipped outside of the three traditional temples in a technology-driven global world. She discusses the way Vrindaban’s souvenir market allows devotees and pilgrims to purchase replicas and images of Krishna to place in domestic shrines and to creatively personalize their relationship with their god. She also examines the role of technology in contemporary devotional practices that now are broadcast live on television and internet and provide devotees darshan inside the comforts of their homes. She also pays special attention to Hindu temples built outside Braj and in the diaspora, looking particularly at the Radha temple near Austin, Texas, where she observes the successful ways the temple speaks to a new generation of Hindus who adapt and shape visual and religious practices to new cultural and geographic contexts. She concludes the book by taking the reader back to Braj as a utopia for Krishna worshippers, since it is in Braj that all the temples of the uniquely self-manifested Krishnas still reside. However, she points out that this sacred world is under threat by environmental degradation and overpopulation that requires the urgent attention of devotees and global citizens.
Although the book is a thorough study of ornamentation and religious devotion, Packert’s focus remains largely on the aesthetic composition and display by a prominent priestly class of goswamis, whose practices are outside the realm of ordinary “folk.” While in chapter 4 she attempts to include the devotional practices of devotees and pilgrims outside these temples, her research in this field is sparse. Packert provides a list of items sold in the streets of Vrindaban for personal Krishna worship, but she does not go inside the homes to examine the way they are used in decoration in domestic shrines. Packert has undoubtedly contributed insightful scholarship collected over many years of fieldwork, but the book’s limited incorporation of everyday traditions outside the privileged walls of the temples and its priests restricts its place in current folklore scholarship.
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[Review length: 1004 words • Review posted on February 23, 2011]